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McKenna Under Fire Over Guns

7 Aug

Having completed only his first legislative session as a state representative, TJ McKenna (D-114th) has already drawn the attention of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial board. While it is a badge of honor for a Republican to be called out by the MSNBC-wannabes that populate the board, that is not the case for a Democrat. The editorial board published a column yesterday that began with stark criticism:

T.J. McKenna should re-read his oath of office.

The board proceeded to call McKenna onto the carpet for his plan to vote to override Governor Jay Nixon’s veto of HB 436, the Second Amendment Preservation Act, which most notably “rejects all federal acts that infringe on a Missouri citizens’ rights under the Second Amendment.”

Now, his intention to vote this way does not mean McKenna is a true believer in the bill. Here was his comment in an AP article:

“We love our guns and we love hunting. It’s not worth the fight for me to vote against it,” said Rep. T.J. McKenna, D-Festus. But, he added, “the bill is completely unconstitutional, so the courts are going to have to throw it out.”

Here’s what the P-D board thought of that:

But Mr. McKenna’s contempt for the Constitution might be even worse. He’s willing to trade his oath of office for a meaningless vote because he thinks it might inoculate him from an electoral challenge.

That’s just cowardice. It’s also a waste of time.

JeffCo Rep. Ben Harris, Democrat from the 118th, also received some harsh words in the editorial. This was his comment on the bill:

“Being a rural-area Democrat, if you don’t vote for any gun bill, it will kill you,” Harris said. “That’s what the Republicans want you to do is vote against it, because if you vote against it, they’ll send one mailer every week just blasting you about guns, and you’ll lose” re-election.

The board responded:

No, Mr. Harris. You will deserve to lose re-election if you don’t have the courage of your convictions. You will lose your election if you can’t speak the truth to your constituents. You will lose your election because you’re more concerned about mailers than the one document you swore to support.

Will this column have any effect? I doubt that a couple of rural legislators care what the big-city paper has to say (nor do their constituents). Other than maybe inspiring a few negative calls and tweets (see below), I don’t think it will. It may provide these representatives some cover with the voters: “Hey, I’m not liberal. I was attacked by the P-D!” Maybe the P-D had this in mind when they wrote the column?

It is interesting that the P-D board had nothing to say about Jeff Roorda (D – 113th), who is also likely, if not certain, to vote for the override. I’m sure that the P-D, always queasy about attacking a Democrat, couldn’t bear to go beyond shaming a couple of 1st/2nd-termers to criticize a more senior Dem who happens to be running for state senate next year.

As an aside, I’m not sold on this bill myself. It is sure to draw an expensive and probably successful legal challenge. Plus, unless the GOP can actually win a statewide race, Democrat Attorneys General will be in charge of defending and enforcing (or not) this bill.

Tax Cut Bill Hinges on JeffCo Legislators

2 Aug

The Missouri Legislature will have a busy veto override session next month, with 29 vetoed bills to consider. One of the bills Governor Jay Nixon vetoed was HB 253, which would gradually cut the top personal income tax rate from 6% to 5.5% and reduce the corporate income tax by 3%. The bill passed the House with 103 votes during the regular session. It will require 109 votes to override, and there are three GOP House members that voted against the bill, including our own Elaine Gannon from the 115th district. Three Democrats voted for the bill, including our own Jeff Roorda from the 113th. As such, our local legislators will play an important role in deciding the ultimate fate of the tax cut.

Roorda has gone from being for the tax cut to being undecided. The other two Dems that voted for the cut are now against it. Missouri House Speaker Tim Jones, who recently expressed pessimism about the chances of a successful override, told the STL Beacon that he called Roorda Wednesday, and that Roorda “remains in play” regarding any override. The call may have been a result of this tweet from Roorda, who apparently doesn’t want his phones blown up:

Roorda is running for a state senate seat next year. For campaign purposes, he would probably like it if no override vote was held. Then he could campaign on the fact that he voted for a tax cut (pending what happens in next year’s session). The retort to that would be a sound bite-unfriendly explanation of how his failure to commit to override helped ultimately kill the bill (he voted for it before he voted against it, in a way).

Gannon is also undecided, as are the other two GOPers that voted no. Gannon has tangled with Jones before. She voted against his education reform plan, which led to her ouster from the House education committee. A no vote here will put her firmly in the party doghouse. This sums up her conflict pretty well:

Gannon, who feared the income tax cut could adversely affect education funding, said she already has received several emails and text messages from constituents in support of the tax cut.

She ultimately may have to make a pressure-packed choice: Does she stick with her original reservations and vote “no,” or stand by the political party that helped her win election and vote “yes?”

“We’ll see,” she said.

Roorda is surely feeling similar pressure to stick with his party. This may be one of those situations where calling your legislator might make a difference.

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JeffCo Port Allocation Passes Legislature

11 May

Yesterday the Missouri House and Senate passed HB 4, a budget bill for the Departments of Revenue and Transportation. This bill includes $421,667 for the Jefferson County Port Authority, which would be a big boost to the fledging port that has been a top campaign issue in recent elections.

Included in this bill is, as I mentioned, funding for the DOR, which has been under fire for scanning and saving documents of license applicants and sharing concealed carry license information with the federal government. As punishment, this bill only funds DOR for 8 months – the Legislature will come back in January to consider funding for the remainder of the year.

Apparently, this 8-month funding provision was so objectionable to JeffCo Democratic legislators (Reps. Roorda, Frame, McKenna, Harris and McKenna in the Senate) that they all voted against the bill.

I’m not sure what the calculus is here. Obviously, this port money is a big deal, and these no votes will be used in future campaigns. Rep. Paul Wieland is already trumpeting the Democratic no votes (last paragraph below). What a way to kick off the emerging Wieland vs. Roorda race for state Senate next year.

It happens a lot in legislating that you have to accept things you don’t like to get something you want. But the tradeoff here that JeffCo Dems refused to make (as explained by Reps. TJ McKenna and Ben Harris in this audio clip) was the 8-month funding for the DOR. They fear that come January, the Legislature won’t provide the rest of DOR’s funding, and department employees will lose their jobs. Once again, like in Pevely, we see government types putting government employees ahead of other needs. I’m not sure why it is worth it to risk losing port funding to attempt to block a temporary reduction in DOR funding. I think the chances of the DOR not getting the rest of their money are minimal – nobody is going to shut the whole department down. There may be some party loyalty going on here, too, as it appears that all the Democrats in the House voted against this bill.

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Tidbits from the Capitol

27 Apr

Here’s a roundup of news from Jefferson City that is relevant to Jefferson County.

  • De Soto businessman and past Democratic congressional candidates Todd Mahn isn’t happy with Governor Jay Nixon’s (lack of) response to the flooding that took place last week in the two men’s hometown.
  • District 22 state senator Ryan McKenna filed an amendment to thwart the growing popularity of seersucker at the Capitol. His amendment would have banned those older than eight years old from wearing seersucker in the state. It was all in jest, he insists. Esquire commented: “Poor McKenna says he feels bullied by their dandyish peacocking in addition to  his view that the style looks silly on adult citizens (we smell ageism at play).”
  • District 115 state representative Elaine Gannon was removed from the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee along with another representative, reportedly for opposing a bill supported by Speaker Tim Jones that would have “made changes to teacher tenure and required school districts to develop teacher evaluation systems that focus on student achievement and performance.” The bill, HB 631, was defeated in the House by a wide margin.
  • District 113 state representative Jeff Roorda spoke at a gun rally at the Capitol last week.
  • Speaking of Roorda, he is headed for a showdown with District 112 representative Paul Wieland for the District 22 senate seat next year. Wieland, a Republican, announced his plans to run this week; Democrat Roorda previously threw his hat in the ring. Former JeffCo sheriff candidate Jason Jarvis withdrew from the GOP side of Senate race upon Wieland’s announcement. He will run for House district 111 (against Rep. Michael Frame) instead.

Histrionics from Local Legislators on Paycheck Protection

13 Mar

The legislature this week has been working on two bills, HB 64 and SB 29, referred to as “paycheck protection.” The bills restrict some unions’ ability to deduct union dues from workers’ paychecks, and also to spend that money on political activities. Jefferson County legislators were active in the debate, perhaps in an over-the-top fashion. Here are some quotes:

Rep. Jeff Roorda, Democrat, 113th:

Sen. Ryan McKenna, D-22:

Rep. Michael Frame, D-111:

Engler Blamed for Car Theft Spike

9 Mar

Kevin Engler, now a state representative down Farmington way, used to represent southern Jefferson County as a state senator. A law that he sponsored last year is being blamed by St. Louis-area law enforcement for a spike in thefts of older cars. Previously, one could only scrap a car without a title if it was 20+ years old, but Engler’s law reduced that to 10 years and older (if it is inoperable).

The purpose of the law was to help rural landowners dispose of old vehicles on their properties. But officials in St. Louis County are blaming this law for a 37% increase in thefts of older vehicles. There was a 4% increase in auto theft in St. Louis last year (the law took effect in late August).

Whether or not this is the case, I enjoyed the responses provided by Engler to the Post-Dispatch:

“There are a lot bigger problems than over-10-year-old car thefts in the metro St. Louis area and Kansas City area, and I would have the police concentrate on some of those problems. But I guess they’ve got to blame it on something…they need to tighten up enforcement of the law and they’ll be fine.”

And this, on the subject of revising the law:

“It’s not a serious problem down here, and if that’s the biggest problem in the city of St. Louis, then I’m not watching the right news at night.”

A Byrnesville Bill?

23 Feb

Update: This bill went nowhere during the 2013 legislative session.

Jefferson County state representatives Paul Wieland, Elaine Gannon, and Jeff Roorda (a bipartisan group) are sponsoring House Bill 407, which states in part:

In any county with a charter form of government and with more than two hundred thousand but fewer than three hundred fifty thousand inhabitants [ed. – aka Jefferson County], if any petition to incorporate a proposed area under this section fails to be adopted, no petition to incorporate such area shall be resubmitted to the governing body of the county during the three years immediately following the disapproval of such incorporation.

I suspect this bill is in response to the group of 13 people trying to create the village of Old Town Byrnesville (here’s their 2011 petition). This group, the entire population of the proposed hamlet, has tried and failed three times, including in 2011 and 2012, to win incorporation. It failed in 2011 by a 4-2 vote and a 6-1 vote in 2012. The group has also lost in court.

The group wants to preserve the area’s history, which includes a log cabin believed to have been built in the 1830s and the Byrnesville grist mill, parts of which date to the same era. The group seems to be outnumbered by opponents:

Linda Schroeder, who owns Schroeder Sod Farm with her husband Gil and lives on the property about half a mile from the proposed village’s border, is a leading dissenter.

She said about 200 people oppose the village’s formation, mostly because they don’t want eventually to be annexed by the village. She said that opens the possibility of higher taxes to contract with the county for services they already receive, she said.

These sound like valid arguments to me. As we are seeing in many small villages, and in cities as large as Pevely, it costs a lot of money per person when a small group of people have to pay the costs of government. And these are just basic costs like sewer and police, never mind the boondoggles that government inevitably gets involved in. I agree that 13 people does not a viable village make. This bill, if passed, will force prospective Byrnesvillians to leave the county council alone for a few years before making another incorporation attempt.

If you care about this issue enough to travel to Jefferson City, or to make some calls/send some e-mails, here is hearing info for this bill:

Local Government Committee, Date: 2/25/2013 Time: 1:00PM Location: House Hearing Room 5

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